The Herd and the HODLers: Recovering from Crypto's Two-Year False Start

The following is an exclusive contribution to CoinDesk's 2018 Year in Review.

Former Goldman vice president Matt Goetz founded BlockTower last year.

In my opinion "The herd" is circling - yes, Fidelity spent four to five years reviewing crypto because launching FDAS; yes, TD Ameritrade invested in a new cryptocurrency exchange called ErisX in a bid to offer clients digital asset investment options beyond bitcoin.

Do you remember last year around this time when that hot new ICO was able to raise $100 million in 30 minutes? Do you also remember all these dapps, with all their 80+ page white papers that no one really read, telling you they were going to reinvent the wheel?

Many of these new projects did not have great plans for how to execute their ideas with their new capital, and most assumed they had five years of runway to figure it out.

Projects raised funds in ether over the last year but forgot to plan any coherent treasury management vision or foresight.

From an institutional investor perspective, the signal-to-noise ratio was quite high this year; I expect with research and news firms coming online this year and into next that will improve.

On Jan 1, 2016, bitcoin was trading around $420. Even with a significant downturn that we've bore witness to over the last few weeks that still represents an 8x over the last two years if you employed the HODL mantra.

It will change the world we live in, providing censorship-resistant protection of assets, new ways to validate identity that don't rely on antiquated technology like SSN. It will enable suppliers and buyers to improve their relationship and begin to chip away at the billions of dollars of food we humans throw out each year while people starve and so much more.

All the talent it's brought in this year is building right now as you read this article.